Alexandru Balan was born in Bucharest, Romania, where he
spent the first 19 years of his life. As the son of two computer scientists
and brother of another, his choice of a career path in the same direction
was somewhat predictable. Accordingly, in 1999 Alex graduated from a
Bucharest computer science high-school and decided to attend Lafayette
College in Easton, PA. After living all his life in a metropolitan area, it
took him a while to adjust to a small place like Easton. Aside from his
primary interest in computers, Alex also became interested in economics. He
also discovered racquetball, and became addicted to it. Alex was
valedictorian of his 2003 graduating class; he received a BS degree in
computer science and a joint AB degree in mathematics and economics. He went
on for his Ph.D. studies at Brown University, where he was the recipient of
the Kanellakis Fellowship. He is now enjoying studying Computer Vision. On
his 24th birthday he got married to his beautiful and loving wife Adina.
